Time Well Spent

It’s been a week and I’ve watched a whole lot of the Olympics.  I have apologized several times to Pete, since this is definitely not his thing.  He’s spent a lot of time this week on his computer working on his genealogy….I guess it’s a fair trade.

So, some comments regarding the Olympics…..

I’ve been a huge fan, all my life.  Now, at my senior age, I’ve noticed some things I probably didn’t pay attention to in the past.

First, ice skating, of all kinds, has really changed as far as I’m concerned.  I really don’t care for a lot of the music that the athletes chose to skate to.  Some of it is Rap, how do you skate to Rap?!! Another thing I noticed, across all forms of music, is that they throw their arms around a whole lot more than they perform with their feet.  Sorry, in my book that is not skating, even though technically it is. 

Too many hours on Curling and Cross Country Skiing.  That gets boring after 15 minutes.  Curling especially, cause in my case I don’t understand the game.  Karen tried to teach it to me a couple of times.  Actually, took me to her curling rink in Wisconsin and on the ice.  I did it, but never understood the rules of the game.  As far as I can tell, it’s a rather complicated game. 

Still love down hill skiing, snowboarding, all that stuff.  So exciting to watch except when they lift someone off the course by helicopter.

Also still love ski jumping, wish I could do it just once, to feel flying through the air that way, would be magical!!!

The TV stays on, even when I’m not in the room.  And I try to stay up later than usual, but I’m not good at that.  At some point the body just takes over, regardless of my intent.

We’ve got one more week to go.  Luckily, this is not a busy time of the year.  I get to sit in front of the TV as much as I want.  And then I’ll have to wait for the 2028 LA Summer Olympics.  That should be good!!!

THE 1980 MIRACLE

So…..the cold and snow I’ve been writing about for the last 2 weeks is still here and going strong.  Which means we haven’t been doing much.  Been watching a bunch of TV.

Saw an ad on TV this week for a new Netflix documentary titled “Miracle:  The Boys of 80”.  Major sports fans know immediately what this title is referring too.  And boy, did the ad unleash a boatload of memories for me. 

If you are not aware, in less than a week the Winter Olympics begin.  I have been a major Olympics fan for as long as I can remember.  Growing up in a sports orientated family sort of demands that addiction.  Have attended the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics and the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics.   I always feel bad for my poor husband, Pete, since he is not as obsessed as I am (if at all) and he must suffer through 2 solid weeks of nothing but Olympics on the TV.

So, the ad brought back the memory of watching that 1980 US Hockey team beat the Russians in Lake Placid, NY on TV.  I was bouncing all over my apartment at the time, could not sit down at all as the game progressed.  And was screaming at the top of my lungs when the “Miracle” happened.  The US team was crushed earlier in the year by the Russians during an exhibit game prior to the Olympics.  No one thought the USA could beat the 4 times defending gold medalists.  But they did!!! 

A second memory was a few years later, driving to see my friend Diane in Maine.  During the drive up I spent the night in Lake Placid.  After dinner that night I saw a flyer for a hockey game and decided to go, having nothing else to do to kill the evening.  I have no memory of who was playing that night, but I found my way to the arena, bought a ticket, realized this was the same arena where the “Miracle” game was played, enjoyed the game and then was a little confused.  Everyone was getting up and leaving. 

I must admit, I didn’t know much about hockey, thought it was 4 quarters, rather than what was actually going on, the game is played to 3 periods.  It was over and I had no idea that it was time to leave!!!  Just a little embarrassing to admit. 

Today Pete and I watched the Netflix show and I have to say, in my opinion, it is an excellent documentary.  It shows the team members as they are today and did a great job retelling the story.  Both Pete and I had tissues for our eyes.  It is still a very emotional story. 

If you remember this 1980 victory, I guarantee you will love the show.  Have fun!!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!!

It’s very rare for me to complain about the cold.  Having survived -60 in Fairbanks, it has to get really cold here in Ohio….but today….

For the past two weeks the only local news we’ve heard on TV is about this approaching storm and today, it arrives.  So, let’s see what happens.

Tonight (Saturday, 1/24) the snow is supposed to start falling and accumulate to maybe 8-10 inches by Monday morning.  If that happens, that is a very significant amount of snow for the Ohio Valley. 

We have prepared.  This past summer we purchased a Honda generator for the house.  Granted, the last time we needed a generator was in 2008 when Hurricane Ike roared through the Ohio Valley.  We lost power for 4 days and that was a royal pain.  We have a friend who brought his portable generator over every other day to keep our refrigerator cold.  No need for one since then.

But last night Pete went out and checked the battery on the used generator we bought from his brother, and that battery was dead.  So this AM we went out and purchased a new one.  The generator is now ready to go.

We bought a few groceries, but our house is pretty well stocked, so I’m not worried about the food situation. 

We have 2 neighbors with the equipment needed to clear the driveway, not that we’ll be able to go anywhere, but that’s nice to know.

So now we just sit and wait.  I’ve got two good books handy, so I’m good that way.  Tablet and phone are fully charged, so I’m good there. 

My last task for the day is to go out and feed the birds.  With that done, I’ll be all set to sit back and watch it snow. 

Don’t ya just love winter!!!!!

IN A HEARTBEAT

Had a pleasant, little Sunday morning surprise this morning.  Phone rang around 12 Noon and it was my friend Karen calling from Phoenix, AZ.

I’ve written about Karen and her husband Jack before.  Originally met them when I lived in Fairbanks.  Jack passed a few years ago and Karen and I have stayed in touch via a couple of phone calls each year, primarily by her calling me.  I need to get better about staying in touch.

We spent 50 minutes on the phone and after we hung up I spent a few minutes, just thinking about times long gone, by 50+ years.  So many memories.  

Memories of times I spent at their bush camp on the Tozitna River.  It’s those memories that not many folks get to have.  Being in the bush, totally removed from any civilization, a time before cell phones, the internet, all that stuff.  It was the best of my times in Alaska. 

There was the time we were walking a trail after dark and came across a headless rabbit.  That was a little freaky.  Fishing for our dinner.  Flying in from Fairbanks and landing on a gravel bar.  Bringing my Dad out for a visit and watching him just thrive in that environment.  Remembering when their son Robin was born in their 12x12 cabin on their kitchen table. 

Karen still has that land and it is now in the ownership of their son, and she’s watching their granddaughter roofing new buildings out there, along with many other activities that most 18-year-old girls don’t have as they head off to college. 

I’m pretty sure I’ll never travel that far north again, but if the opportunity should happen to come along, I’ll be there in a heartbeat!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

2026 came in rather quietly for us.  As usual we planned an early dinner out.  Pete wanted to go out to a high-end restaurant, but I just couldn’t pay $80 for a piece of meat!!!  Especially when I rarely eat steak, etc.  Weird, I know, for a kid who grew up in a meat market, but I guess I just saw too much of the behind the scenes when I was 10 years old.  Anyway, we went to one of our favorite bar restaurants.  We got drinks and dinner for way less than that $80 hunk of red meat!!!

Made it home in time to turn on the Miami/OSU Cotton Bowl game.  We watched about half of the first quarter but had to give up.  Don’t know who it was calling the game…. but he was absolutely terrible!!!  I mean the worst ever!!  So bad that we couldn’t continue watching a game we both wanted to watch.

So, then I turned to playing my favorite game on my tablet and Pete was watching “American Pickers”.  Now, you have to understand, typically we are in bed by 9 PM.  Pete watches TV while I read my current book.  Usually, lights are out by 10 PM.  Last night I was determined to stay up to watch the Ball drop on Time Square.  That would typically be very tough for me to do, given my usual schedule, but I had had a couple of Rum & Cokes.  Being particularly sensitive to the caffeine in Coke, I knew I would stay awake.  Pete made it until about 9:30, and then headed for the bedroom.  Our usual New Year’s Eve tradition is, I stay up, a few minutes before midnight I wake him up, hand him a glass of champagne and when the ball drops, we kiss, drink our champagne and then he goes right back to sleep. 

Well, this year, for the first time ever, about 11:50, he comes out of the bedroom, gets his glass of champagne, and sits down beside me.  FIRST TIME EVER!!!

It was still 2:30 or so before I got to sleep due to all the Coke.  But this morning when I woke up, the first thought on my mind was, “It’s only 22 years until I turn 100 years old!”  Where the hell did that thought come from????

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

This week I have to write about a book I’m just about to finish.  It’s titled Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert.  Kolbert won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, The Sixth Extinction which I read a few years ago.

It was a very interesting book.  I learned that over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Now reading Under a White Sky I’m learning about what steps are being taken (or more specifically, being explored) to turn around climate change.   The question is, can we change nature in order to save it?

I first heard of ‘geoengineering’ at a 2019 Nobel Conference held at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota.  The Conference that year was titled ‘Climate Changed’.  There were 7 lectures over the course of 2 days and David Keith, who presented “How Might Solar Geoengineering Fit Into Sound Climate Policy?” was the sixth speaker.  He really got my attention.  Geoengineering manages solar radiation by deflecting some of it away from earth. 

I can’t go into a lot of detail as some of the information is way over my head, but reading Kolbert’s book educated me a little further.  I learned that there are research activities taking place all over the world that are looking into multiple ways of reducing CO2 from our atmosphere.  The scary part is there are multiple thoughts on what can be injected (seeded) into the atmosphere to ‘capture’ the CO2.  Everything from crushed diamonds to silver iodide, and several other possibilities….all of which make me squirm a little.  You just have to wonder about ‘unintended consequences’.

As an example, in April 1815 a volcano erupted on the island of Tambora, an Indonesian island, which turned summer into winter throughout Europe.  The eruption caused significant global cooling to the point of crop failure and starvation of large numbers of people.  This happened due to the volcanic dust that entered the atmosphere and blocked the sun.

While this was not ‘an unintended consequence’, no one had a hand in launching or controlling the outcome of a volcanic eruption, the same cannot be said for geoengineering.

Certainly, climate change is a very significant global problem, and no one seems to have yet an answer on how to address the issue, I sure hope that those scientists who are moving forward toward any kind of action, have a firm grip on ‘unintended consequences.’

Or things could get a whole lot worse!

(One little side note:  When I checked the book out of the library a staff person told me I had just saved the book!?  It had not been checked out in over 2 years….now because of my borrowing it, it just gained another 2 year shelf life.  Sure hope someone else finds it over the next 2 years.)

AM I 'PIGPEN'?

I’m beginning to wonder…am I closely related to “Pigpen”, the Peanuts character who had a perpetual cloud over his head?  Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, a series of events have happened, that makes me wonder and look above, is there a cloud over my head that I can’t see?

It started with the dishwasher.  Let me say, that all the appliances in our kitchen are relatively new, as in, since the start of the pandemic.  The first incident with the dishwasher is that midway through a wash cycle it would throw an error code and shut down.  The code was ‘H2O’.  Luckily for our house, Peter is an excellent fixit guy.  He does his research on YouTube.  He did his research and while it took a little while, he figured out to try a different wash cycle, and that seemed to fix the problem. 

He did have to pull the dishwasher out and mess with the water line.  The next day I found a small puddle on the kitchen floor, but it took a second for Pete to retighten the water hose and all is well.

Then, a few days later just after we went to bed, Pete heard a clicking sound that was not part of our environment.  It took a minute to locate the sound, but it was coming from our gas stove.  We have a propane gas stove and the clicking was the little device in the burner that ignites the gas to become a flame.  The burner was not on, so there was no gas to ignite.  We pulled the stove out, and unplugged it.

The next morning, we plugged it back in, and for the moment at least, there is no more clicking.

Then on Thanksgiving Day I sat down at my new laptop computer (delivered from Amazon on October 9) and a bright blue screen appeared informing me that the computer had a serious problem and needed an immediate repair.  Nothing I did would allow me to open the computer. 

So, I took it to a repair shop and a few days later they informed me that the hard drive was corrupted and IF they could fix it, I would lose all my content.  Luckily, I still have my old computer and now, as I wait for a credit from Amazon for the purchase amount, I can still login on the old computer. 

Not sure what else is on the horizon, but I’m keeping my head low and trying to out run the cloud.  Hopefully the extreme cold weather will chase that cloud away!!!